Say what anyone will about Jim Carrey, in his heyday he made some fine films, and one of my favorites is 2001’s The Majestic. It’s not just a straight-ahead, old-school feel-good movie, but a lot of it was filmed in Ferndale, California, an absolutely gorgeous town in Humboldt County.
The movie opens at a concept meeting, where a bunch of faceless execs are working out a new movie, possibly with a How Green Was My Valley slant. Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) sits and listens contentedly. He’s got a good life in Hollywood. He’s writing screenplays and watching them being made into movies. His girlfriend, Sandra Sinclair (Amanda Detmer) is starring in his latest movie, Sand Pirates of the Sahara, and we find Peter and Sandra watching it at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, munching popcorn and occasionally making out.
Then one day it all falls apart. Peter has been accused of being a Communist and is going to have to appear before the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Sandra dumps him. His upcoming movie has been shelved until further notice.
Peter’s response is to go to a bar, get mildly drunk, drive off a bridge, and hit his head on a pylon. He’s found washed onshore by a guy named Ernie (Jeffrey DeMunn) who walks him into the little town of Lawson, and long story short, Peter doesn’t know who he is but the town all think he’s Luke Trimble, one of their young men who went off to fight World War Two. Luke hasn’t been heard from in nine years, and the townspeople seem to think he’s come back from the dead. Lawson has lost dozens of sons to the war, and it’s cast a pall over the whole town.
Naturally, no one is more overjoyed at seeing Peter than Luke’s dad, Harry (Martin Landau), the owner of the town theater, the Majestic. Harry doesn’t much question where Luke has been for the past nine years; he’s just glad to have him back. Peter meets Luke’s friends and gets to know the townspeople, but he’s especially intrigued by Adele (Laurie Holden), Luke’s old girlfriend. Adele has been off at law school and is now about to take her BAR exam, so she’s a busy lady.
Speaking of being busy, Harry has the idea of re-opening the Majestic. It was shuttered years ago and has fallen into disrepair, but Harry thinks the place can shine again. He, Peter, usher Emmett (Gerry Black) and concessions lady Irene (Susan Willis) set to work and on Opening Night, they find a line of excited townspeople outside the theater waiting to buy tickets.
Peter’s past will catch up with him, of course. What he thought he was running from will find him, and who knows when his memory will come back. Or when Lawson will figure out that he’s not Luke Trimble. In the meantime, Peter’s become like a son to Harry and genuinely in love with Adele, but he may have to prove himself all over again when the truth finally comes out.
The Majestic is a good, fun movie with a great message. Well, I like it. It’s got great character development, it handles the HUAC era pretty well, Jim Carrey and Martin Landau are a great team, and Laurie Holden plays Adele with the cool detachment reminiscent of Lauren Bacall. It’s got a little bit of everything. Carrey even works in a little bit of his trademark comedy, although it’s relatively subdued and most of it involves a stuffed monkey.
While the movie was also shot in Los Angeles and Mendocino County, the bulk of the filming took place in Ferndale, and the movie shows the town to its best advantage. I was there a year ago this month, and it was kind of surreal having seen the movie and then actually be in the place, and not just because it’s such an unusual town.
On a side note, Ferndale is Guy Fieri’s hometown, and as a kid he sold pretzels there off of a cart. As of 2021 he owns the Ferndale Meat Company, which makes sausage and other delicacies onsite, and in 2022 he also turned a former bank building in the town into the Humboldt Hometown Store. This year, Ferndale has declared April 5th will henceforth be known as Guy Fieri Day.
Anyway, a lot of the buildings are straight out of the Victorian Era, and the town is fastidious about what kinds of businesses come to town. They don’t even want a McDonald’s or an In-N-Out. Big box stores? Heck, no. I’ve even heard from people familiar with the area that residents can only paint their buildings historically accurate colors and per city ordinances, people are to keep their yards clean and everything looking picture postcard perfect. Even the parking lots are immaculately clean, with nary a cigarette butt in sight.
As a result, the town has stayed small and frozen in time. It helps that it’s a little bit of a drive from the towns of Fortuna and Eureka; it almost prepares the brain for what’s ahead.
That’s why The Majestic is a special movie for my husband and I. His grandparents lived in Humboldt County for many years so he’s been to Ferndale many times, and the first time we watched The Majestic he was able to point out places he had gone to or a particular bench he sat on.
The great thing about the town not changing much was that it was pretty easy to figure out what had been shot where.
Well, for the most part. A certain amount of movie magic still took place, and some of the buildings were remade slightly. The diner, for instance, was built on the site of a former gas station. Here’s how it looked when I visited it.
Another big change was how the cemetery looked. The movie shows the basic layout, but the characters keep walking through a trellis to a plot where the town’s World War Two casualties are buried. This was only for the movie, though–when I was there I didn’t see a trellis or a dedicated World War Two section. Even some of the names on the graves were changed.
What really had me fooled, though was where Harry and Peter’s theater was. I mistakenly thought the town’s actual theater was where it was filmed and spent about twenty minutes photographing it.
In actuality, though, the Majestic was built on top of the Ferndale City Parking lot. Oops. Here’s how the lot looked in the movie, and how it looks today.
Understandably, Ferndale is extremely proud of its association with The Majestic, and as a movie it’s worn very well. Come to think of it, seeing as Ferndale hasn’t changed much since 2001, it gives the idea of wearing well a whole new meaning. Lawson will always be there, and the Majestic will always be open.
Another review is coming out on Wednesday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
The Majestic is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.
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